Only the Publisher benefits from the end user being forced to be connected to their servers. And wait until the first Publisher calls for a $5 monthly fee once the online DRM trend is established. Undoubtedly, those here that will forgive this publisher anything because they are the only one producing subsims will then be saying "Come on. It's $5. Everyone can afford that. The Publisher can't afford to give us server access for free."
The only justification for online access is multi player.